Five…four…three…two…one…game over. The Cincinnati Bengals just lost to the Houston Texans in the playoffs for the 2nd year in a row. At this point, many Bengals fans are remembering this game fully and pointing fingers at certain players. Andy Dalton has received a lot of flack, but one other player seems to have received a lot more than him. That player would be Jermaine Gresham.

Bengals fans remembered some of his drops he had in this game, and throughout this offseason they have been taking their anger out on him. Many people called Gresham “butter fingers” and stated that he dropped numerous balls and wasn’t a good TE even though he has been to the Pro Bowl two years in a row. But all numerous Bengals fans have been saying this offseason is how many balls Gresham dropped and how he hasn’t lived up to potential and such. A lot of people are just looking at that Houston game and going off on that solely. But let’s take a deeper look into Gresham’s production and hopefully this will help people understand that Gresham certainly isn’t as bad as many people believe.

Jermaine Gresham has been in the league for 3 years, but during his NFL career, his production has increased each year. Also, after his 3rd season, he joins Mike Ditka and fellow Sooner Keith Jackson as the only tight ends in NFL history to have over 50 receptions in the first three years of their career.

That’s right, Tony Gonzalez hasn’t done that, nor has Antonio Gates. Not even Rob Gronkowski or Jimmy Graham have done that. But what are people going to argue about with Gresham? They’re going to bring up the drops in the Houston game, and then try to say how many times he drops the ball. Well I decided to go a bit further into numbers and compare him to other tight ends.